Garden strawberries – diseases and pests

Garden strawberries often suffer from pests and fungal diseases, and if measures are not taken in time, you can lose all such a long-awaited crop. In the article we will talk about the most dangerous diseases and pests of this culture, we will discuss ways to prevent and control them..

Strawberries, like any crop grown on our backyards, often suffer from various pests and diseases. In order to prevent the complete destruction of the crop, you should know the main signs of infection of strawberry beds and carry out their processing on time.

Diseases

Most often, strawberry bushes are affected by fungal diseases, the most dangerous of which are powdery mildew, gray rot, white and brown leaf spot.

Powdery mildew– a dangerous disease that affects both leaves and berries. In a diseased plant, the leaves curl, gradually changing color to purple, and are covered with a mealy bloom. This disease interferes with normal pollination, the berries are ugly, covered with bloom and have a mushroom smell and taste..

Gray rotcan ruin almost the entire crop – up to 80% of the berries are spoiled, on which, with the development of the disease, non-softened, fast-growing, light brown spots with a fluffy bloom appear. In this case, the berries dry and mummify. This disease also affects the leaves, they are covered with large blurry spots of brown or dark gray color, while the stalks and ovaries dry out.

Brown and White Spotaffects plant leaves. With brown, brown spots appear on them, the leaf very quickly turns yellow and dies off. With a lesion with white spot on the leaves, you can see spots of brown or purple color in the form of large dots.

Fungal diseasesmost often develop as a result of non-compliance with the simplest rules for growing strawberries. As a rule, they rage on old plantations, where a large number of pathogens accumulate for a long time. In order to prevent the development of the epidemic, it is necessary:

• move strawberry beds to new places more often;
• to process plantings in spring (before flowering) and after harvesting with special products that can be purchased at specialized retail outlets;
• do not buy seedlings from random sellers;
• maintain optimal humidity in the beds.

Pests

Not only people love to eat strawberries. There are many insects that mercilessly damage the berries and leaves of this culture. The most dangerous pests are: strawberry nematode, aphid, strawberry mite, wasps.

Strawberry nematode– a small, rapidly multiplying worm (length 0.5–1 mm) that infects the leaves and stems of strawberries. In nematode-infected bushes, young leaves twist and deform, cuttings are shortened, stems thicken and grow. Infected plants practically do not produce a crop, and if there are berries, they are very small and irregular in shape. The fight against strawberry nematode is, first of all, in prevention. To do this, only healthy seedlings are selected for planting, which are moistened with hot water (46-50 degrees) for ten minutes before planting, and then immediately placed in cold water for fifteen minutes. Plants with the first signs of infection should be urgently removed from the garden and burned.

AphidIs a dangerous pest that sucks juice from leaves and stems. You can fight aphids with the help of garlic infusion. For this, a small head of garlic is peeled and the cloves are poured with three liters of cold water, insisted for 6-8 days. The prepared infusion with the help of a spray bottle is used to treat aphid-affected strawberry beds.

Strawberry mite– the most dangerous pest of garden strawberries. The females of the tick hibernate at the base of the leaves, and with the onset of heat they begin to actively lay eggs. In bushes affected by a strawberry mite, the leaves wrinkle, becoming covered with an oily bloom, the berries become very small. Infected bushes in early spring should be treated with karbofos or colloidal sulfur. Before flowering, the beds are sprayed with Neoron. If the plants are very badly affected by the tick, they are completely removed from the plantation and burned.

Containers with sweet compote or honey and sugar diluted in water will help to distract the wasps from the strawberry plantation..

Birds can also cause significant damage to crops. To prevent this, red glass balls (used in interior design) are laid around the bushes, long before the berries ripen. The birds will try to peck them, they will not like them, after which the strawberry bed will lose all interest for the birds.

In order for the strawberry plantation to delight you with a generous harvest from year to year, you should not ignore even the slightest signs of the manifestation of the disease or the appearance of pests on the bushes. Following the above recommendations will help you keep your plants healthy and get a good harvest..